Whitegate water treatment and outages
Deputy O'Connor highlights repeated water outages and boil notices in east Cork and seeks commitment to deliver the Whitegate water treatment facility and address Ballyhooly outages. The Taoiseach promises to follow up on Whitegate and offers warm wishes to retiring Deputies after the Chair joins in the remarks.
As east Cork residents are continuously hit with long-lasting water outages and boil water notices, can we see a commitment from the Government that the new Whitegate water treatment facility, which Deputy Stanton and I have worked very hard to deliver, will be delivered, and also some focus on water outages in Ballyhooly? I acknowledge the huge frustration being caused locally for people we represent.
The year 1997, the year Deputy Stanton was elected to the House, was the year I was born. I wish him a happy retirement with his family as he stands down before the upcoming election.
Comment on this
That is very gracious. Just in case I do not get an opportunity to do so in the future – I may or may not – may I wish everybody who is retiring from this House before the next election, of all political parties, the very best? I believe politics is a noble service and everybody, of all political persuasions, comes here with the intention of doing good for their community and country. I join the Deputy in congratulating and thanking Deputy Stanton and others right across the House. I thank him for reminding me of this.
I will certainly follow up on the Whitegate facility. As the Deputy knows, the Government has committed a lot of additional funding to address water supply, including in the most recent budget. I hope that will benefit his constituents. What the Deputy said was also a very subtle way of reminding people of his relative youth.